Kukla's Korner Hockey

Almost every winter there were days when the lake near Ocean County College would freeze, and on those days, that's where Sam Schneider would take his sons Mathieu and J.A.
"What I was trying to do was instill a sense of responsibility and accomplishment and respect," Sam Schneider said from his Vermont home last week. "I was trying to teach kids how to grow up to be young men. I just used hockey as a vehicle."
...When the Olympics are over, Schneider will return to Detroit, where his Red Wings are sitting atop the NHL's Western Conference standings.
"For me, it's been a breath of fresh air," Schneider said. "It reminds me of playing in Montreal my first few years."

Craig Conroy's Olympic dream began while seated in front of a television set at his grandmother's house in upstate New York on a frigid February night in 1980. A little more than two hours later, the 9-year-old learned to believe in miracles.